


How the Meek Have Fallen

by Flashofhope



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hermann visits Newt in his cell, Newt gets Alice withdrawals, but it doesn't go well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-06 23:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14067588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flashofhope/pseuds/Flashofhope
Summary: Hermann visits Newt in his cell, hoping to get to the bottom of the Precursor's hold over his friend.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was disappointed with Pacific Rim: Uprising. There wasn't enough heart and there wasn't enough Newt (the best part of the movie.) So I wrote a post-credit scene I wish they had made, about his new condition.

As a scientist with the Pan Pacific Defense Corp, it was Hermann Gottlieb's role to crunch the numbers and deal with complex mathematical formulae.

As Newton Gieszler's closest friend, Hermann had made sure that the burden of examining Newt in his mind-controlled state fell upon him. Qualifications be damned.

"You're not going to find anything, you know." Newton stated as a matter of fact, with a smug grin on his face. As Hermann scanned his brain with a medical scanner, in order to find signs of abnormalities that would explain his subservient state.

"What we have going on… it's special." Newt spoke with admiration about his enslavers. His connection with the Precursors, keeping him blissful in spite of being shackled in a dingy, isolated cell.

"There are signs of increased activity in your frontal lobe. No doubt as a result of this strange 'bond' you have with the Precursors. They've taken over your personality, behaviour. Even your judgement, poor enough as it was." Hermann informed Newt of the results of the data pad in his hand, thankful for something to break the one-sided conversation with.

"My judgement is fine, Hermann. I was making way for our new rulers. The number of habitable planets in the universe is so limited, why shouldn't they take over? We were destroying ours, anyway." Newt explained his warped reasoning with a smile, to Hermann's horror. How far he had fallen, Hermann thought.

From an admirer of Kaijus, to their servant. Willing to sacrifice the very world he lived in, to please them.

"As a resident of this planet, I very much object to that and so should you. If there's any part of you that still objects." Hermann retorted. Hoping his indignation would bring the true Newt back to the surface.

"There is. But it's so quiet, it's not even worth listening to." The deep, rumbling voice of a Precursor came out of Newt's mouth. Making Hermann jump backwards with fright, nearly dropping the data pad in the process.

Despite having been on the receiving end of Newt's changed personality. Enduring his brashness and his choking grip, none of it had prepared Hermann for hearing the unsettling, unearthly voice of the Precursor.

Taking a moment to compose himself. Hermann closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, regaining his courage.

"Newton is stronger than you think, and I will do whatever it takes to free him of this deplorable slavery!" Hermann vehemently cried out a vow to save his friend.

Saying nothing while he thought over Hermann's declaration, all the while keeping eye contact with the agitated scientist. Newt cocked his chin to the side with intrigue.

"I like it when you get worked up, Hermann. It's so riveting." Newt admitted. To Hermann's infuriation, making him hobble out of the cell with anger.

"Come visit me again, soon! It's so boring in this cell…" Newt called out to Hermann with a smile. His smile faltering once Hermann had left the cell, leaving him alone with his thoughts and the suffocating will of his oppressors.


	2. A Gift From a Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning to Newt with an answer he doesn't want to hear. Hermann offers him what little comfort he can provide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After I watched an interview where Charlie Day said Newt was separated ‘from the man he loved’ in Uprising. I decided that Hermann would be the anchor to keep him grounded, when he’s suffering from the withdrawals of being separated from Alice.

Following Newt's provocation two days before, Hermann had returned to Newt's cell with a new agenda; don't let Newt toy with him and try convince him to provide intel on finding and destroying the Precursors. He had only succeeded in the former.

After multiple visits, Newt's behaviour had improved slightly and he'd confided in Hermann about his long running relationship with the Kaiju brain he had named Alice. Repelled, but not entirely surprised, Hermann had passed on Newt's request to be allowed to drift with the Kaiju to the PPDC's council.

And he now had an answer to give him.

"Hermann. You haven't visited me in a while." Newt reproached Hermann, as he sat on a hard prison cot, when the scientist came over to visit him.

"With good reason."

"Did the council agree to my request?"

"Without giving anything in return, I'm afraid they can't grant you access to your Kaiju… companion." Hermann informed him. Treading lightly with his choice of words to describe the entity Newt had grown so dependent on.

"You don't understand, I need to be with her. I can't sleep at night." Newt tried to explain, his voice frantic. His bloodshot eyes and fidgety movements confirming Hermann's fears that drifting with Alice was akin to taking a highly addictive drug, complete with withdrawal symptoms.

"I'll have some sleeping pills sent over." Hermann offered, with a pang of regret in his heart knowing he could only offer so little to soothe his friend.

"It won't be enough!" Newt hissed, his voice rising. The time passed since his last 'hit' making him agitated.

"You will have to manage." Hermann replied as calmly as he could and retrieved something in his pocket. "In the meantime, I brought you this." Hermann took out a portable media player and a pair of earbuds and offered them through the prison bars, hoping that Newt would accept them.

"I thought I wasn't allowed to get anything." Newt reminded him with resentment. Throwing shade at the council's decision to deny his reunion with his beloved Alice.

"Drifting with a Kaiju maybe, but they never said anything about presents." Hermann told him with a smirk. Pleased with himself for finding a loophole that allowed him to help Newt in some way.

Getting up slowly, so he wouldn't show that he was too interested. Newt approached Hermann and announced his doubts.

"It's not going to help."

"Be that as it may, I hope it will bring you some relief." Hermann dropped the gifts in Newt's reluctant, but outstretched hand. His fingers brushing past Newt's skin. The mere touch making his hand tremble; the toll of being so starved of social interaction in his lonely prison cell. But that mattered little now, because he had a friend on his side.

Laying on his side on the prison cot that night, Newt listened to the familiar, comforting sound of his favourite tunes. Though his mind still yearned for the rush of drifting with Alice, his mind fixated on someone different that night. The man whose embrace he had brushed aside, yet still came bearing gifts.


	3. Sink or Swim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt barely manages to stay afloat as a rogue medical team pump him with drugs to get the truth out of him. Hermann then frees him and saves the day!

It wasn't the chemicals the doctor had injected into his body that worried Newt, he'd survived worse than that, twice. Nor was it the fact that his heart was slowing to a halt. It was the shortness of breath that could end his life, that scared him. All he had to do was hold on.

As a child, he had been taught to swim at school. But Newt hadn't liked it very much because of how much effort it took to breathe properly, while his arms propelled through the water. As it turned out, the Precursors didn't like an unsteady breath either.

Like rats fleeing from a sinking ship, the Precursors wanted nothing to do with a dying host and Newt felt his near impervious bond with the Precursors slip away. As the now tenuous bond was severed from his mind, Newt let out a gasp.

Was it because his brain was in desperate need of oxygen? Or because the bond that drove his very actions was now gone? Newt found it difficult to tell, as his brain functions slowly shut down.

—

On his way to Newt's cell for one of his weekly visits, with the hope that Newt was doing well in his heart. Hermann noticed that the usual guard was leaning against the wall, looking much too relaxed for someone guarding a prisoner.

As Hermann approached the cell, the guard quickly shifted his weight to both legs to regain his posture and denied him entry. "I can't let you through."

"Why not?" Hermann asked, wondering why today was any different.

"Dr. Geiszler behaved too violently to be allowed visitors today."

"I'll be the judge of that!" Hermann snapped, not believing a word the guard said. Newt had made such progress in the past few weeks, there was no way he'd act out that way, unless…

Fearing the worst, Hermann and peered into the square window in the door. What he saw made his stomach fill with a most sickening feeling. The cell that once housed his friend was empty, and all Hermann could do was stare at it with disbelief.

Heart sinking with the reality that the council had taken Newt away. The feeling of despair was quickly replaced with rage.

"Where is he?!" Hermann demanded to know, grabbing the guard by his shirt, despite knowing it was a serious offense.

Caught off guard by the scientist's anger, the guard gave up his location, so Hermann would release him. "They took him to the interrogation room."

Now knowing where he needed to go, Hermann set off as fast as he could to rescue Newt.

"Wait! I've been given strict orders to stop anyone from going there." The guard warned Hermann of what he would have to do if he continued.

"Then by all means, try."

—

After arriving at his destination, Hermann barged into the interrogation room. Where he was greeted by the sight of medical personnel, crowded around an unconscious Newt, sitting in that awful chair used to contain him.

Mind fraught with worry, all Hermann could think about was how much suffering he Newt endured by their hands in his absence.

"Newton…What have you done to him?"

"He wouldn't give us the intel we needed, so we had to make some compromises." The doctor spoke, as a nurse behind him removed an I.V tube from Newt's arm to cover up their tracks. Something that did not go unnoticed by Hermann. How long had they tortured Newt until he had given up the information?

"By pumping him with drugs? Has the council been informed of this?" Hermann asked, barely containing his rage at the hypocrisy of a doctor who had harmed a patient.

"The council didn't have the guts to allow what needed to be done. We gave him a non-lethal dose and he told us what we needed to know." The doctor told him. Barely hiding his arrogance that he'd gotten things done better than the council ever could have.

"Release him." Hermann demanded, with a cold and concise voice.

"Alright."

"Hurry up." Hermann emphasized the point and moved towards the chair containing Newt. The medical personnel moving awkwardly out his way, after they had released the clamps.

"Newton, I am getting you out of here." Hermann declared. Ignoring the fact that the semi-conscious Newt might not have heard him.

Slinging Newt's arms over his shoulder so he could lean on him as they walked, Hermann fired back against the doctor and his staff who had harmed Newt.

"I will see that you lose your medical license for this. All of you."

As the two of them headed towards the door, as fast as Hermann could manage with the weight of Newt's body and his own slow gait. Newt groggily asked Hermann a question. "Hermann… where are we going?"

"Home." Hermann informed the man, who would now be his new roommate.


	4. Biochemical Warfare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Precursors get defeated and Newt returns that hug he never gave Hermann in Uprising.

On the day that Hermann brought Newt to his apartment, neither man was fortunate enough to have slept well that night. Being a sensible man, despite his reserved social inclinations. Hermann had the foresight of renting an apartment with two bedrooms, even if there was little chance of guests using the extra bedroom.

While Hermann tossed and turned as his nightmares tormented him, Newt was the opposite. Instead becoming paralyzed, as shadowy figures loomed over him, while he was unable to do anything about it.

Fed up with his nightmares preventing him from having a peaceful sleep, Hermann gave up trying and left his bedroom. Turning on the lights in the kitchen, a sliver of light came through the gap under Newt's door, giving him the courage to move his muscles and escape the shadows his sleepy mind had conceived.

Noticing Newt rubbing his eyes as he plodded towards the kitchen, Hermann asked him if he was the reason why Newt was now roaming through the apartment.

"Did I wake you?"

"Nope. The Precursors took care of that." Newt replied, sounding much too chipper for a man who had endured so much suffering.

"They haven't left your mind?"

"Not completely. The thought of them is still lingering in my psyche." Newt said with a smile.

"I don't see what you have to smile about." Hermann responded, wondering what Newt had to be so happy about.

"I'm smiling, because they had nothing to do with it. It was my own brain and nothing else." Newt took charge of his nightmares with pride. Pleased that he was free of the Precursor's influence, even if it had left his brain with mental scars.

"I wish I could say the same."

"You only drifted with them once Hermann, maybe it is only your brain." Newt remarked. His understanding of fear giving him a hunch that it was Hermann's terror that caused his recurring nightmares. Or that the Precursors learned their lesson from his dying brain and stopped messing with his friend. Newt liked the sound of that, even if it was wishful thinking.

"You may be right." Hermann confessed. Accepting Newt's assessment.

"Of course, I'm right." Newt replied with cockiness, that Hermann was pleased to know had come from him and not the Precursors.

—

Shortly before Newt's interrogation, the Precursors had made good on their promise and sent another wave of Kaijus to devastate the Earth. What they hadn't counted on was the live capture of one their smaller, hybrid drones. Resulting in the PPDC's brightest scientists developing a neurotoxin from experiments conducted on it, that would eradicate the Precursors with a domino effect.

Reaching out to the world's leading space agencies for the use of their rockets. The PPDC now had access to a reliable mode of transportation. Capable of sending the Gipsy Avenger and the rest of the Jaegers, through a portal in the Earth's atmosphere leading to the Precursor home world; the Anteverse. Armed with several chemical dispersing bombs, the Jaegers would bring about swift retribution to the race who had plagued mankind with their numerous invasion attempts.

As the weeks went by to get the Jaegers into functional condition. The monotony of living in Hermann's apartment with little to do was beginning to get Newt, who complained about Hermann's stock of nutritious, but bland breakfast food.

"Don't you get tired of eating the same food every day, Hermann? Oatmeal is only slightly better than prison food."

"I don't agree with that, but I really should change my grocery list." Hermann answered with a sheepish smile. A smile Newt might have returned, had he not been feeling resentful.

While spending time with his friend had been good for him, it had also given him much time to reflect on their friendship in the past few years, leading to some unpleasant conclusions.

"That's not the only thing you should have done." Newt muttered under his breath something Hermann knew wasn't about food, but about something neither of them wanted to acknowledge.

"I didn't quite catch that. If there's something you want to say, you should speak up." Hermann spoke loudly, to make it clear that if Newt had something to say, he should do so now. Two could play at that game.

"How many times did we miss each other, Hermann? A missed phone call here, an urgent meeting, there? While you had nightmares…" Newt paused, getting choked up because of what he had to say next. "They were in my head… any time they wanted."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me, Newton." Hermann patted Newt on the shoulder to console his closest friend, until a phone call interrupted him.

"Gottlieb, how's Newt? Is he feeling any better?" Jake Pentecost asked, checking up on his colleagues to see how they were faring.

"If he is, he's not showing it." Hermann said, loud enough for Newt to hear, who turned his head with embarrassment.

"That's not cool. But we're going to need you to come in. Check the numbers before the final launch, that kind of stuff." Jake explained in his own words, the nature of Hermann's assignment.

"I'll be right there."

"See you in a bit."

Ending the call, Hermann got ready to leave and put on his shoes and jacket. While Newt gave Hermann, his sarcastic good wishes. "Have fun saving the world…"

"You're coming too." Hermann went up to Newt and grabbed him by the arm, gently leading him towards the door.

"Why do I have to be there?"

"To witness history in the making!" Hermann announced with a grin.

—

Once they had arrived at the command centre, Hermann confirmed that the calculations for launching the rocket through the Mesosphere was correct and the launch was good to go.

After a successful launch into the portal, Jake, Amara and the rest of their team kept the command centre posted with updates about the mission and any resistance met as the corralled of the Precursors into one area for minimal chance of the gas missing any Precursors, hive mind or not. Eventually, every Precursor had succumbed to the neurotoxin. Signalling the end of the war with the Precursors.

"This is Ranger Pentecost, reporting. The Precursors are down. I repeat, the Precursors are down!" Jake called the command centre, relishing the moment of reporting that they had defeated the enemy.

After Jake's report had come in loud and clear, the command centre erupted with cheers and applause, overjoyed that the Precursors had been vanquished after so many years.

"They finally put an end to them…" Hermann marvelled at the young Ranger's remarkable accomplishment. Newt, who was not feeling as euphoric as everyone in the room, turned to Hermann expressed his concerns for the future.

"What are we gonna do now?"

"We'll figure something out." Hermann assured him. His use of the word 'we' giving reassurance to Newt, that he would not be taking the next path in his life alone. The kindness of Hermann's words, making Newt give his friend an awkward hug in return.


End file.
